Andhra Governor exempted from personal appearance in court

New Delhi, Dec 15 (IANS) Delhi High Court Monday exempted Andhra Pradesh Governor N.D. Tiwari from personally appearing in court Tuesday in connection with a paternity suit filed by a man claiming to be his natural son. A bench comprising Justices A.K. Sikri and Manmohan Singh, hearing Tiwari’s petition challenging a single judge’s order asking him to appear Dec 16 before the court, granted him permission to be represented by his lawyer on the date.

They, however, refused to set aside the order of the single judge, saying the matter pertaining to Tiwari’s personal appearance must be argued before the same judge.

The court said since the matter is coming up Dec 16, Tiwari would not have sufficient time to file a fresh application, so “he is exempted from personal appearance for tomorrow.”

Challenging the single bench Nov 25 order asking him to appear before it Dec 16, Tiwari, through his counsel R.S. Bakshi, had submitted earlier before a division bench that he was exempted from personal appearance under section 133 of the Civil Procedure Code.

Tiwari’s counsel argued “grave prejudice and inconvenience” would be caused to his client and the office he held in case the earlier order was not stayed.

The court earlier refused to exempt Tiwari from personal appearance, saying that it was a family matter but he was not above the law.

The order came on a suit filed April by Rohit Shekhar, grandson of former Union Minister Sher Singh, claiming that he was born out of a relationship between Tiwari and his mother Ujjwala Singh, who is also associated with the Congress party.

The 85-year-old governor has rubbished the claim.

Tiwari also questioned the jurisdiction of the high court in admitting the case as he was at present residing in Hyderabad and Shekhar was born in Lucknow.